BRISBANE, Australia — An Australian stunt man and reality television star was shot and killed Monday on the set of a music video.
Johann Ofner, 28, of the Gold Coast, died after he was shot in the chest while filming a scene for Australian hip-hop group Bliss N Eso's music video. According to the Courier Mail, Ofner was shot with a double-barreled shotgun.
Film crew members performed CPR until police and paramedics arrived, but Ofner, a stuntman and carpenter who was to be featured on new reality show “Australian Ninja Warrior” later this year, died at the scene.
The music video was being shot in the Brooklyn Standard, a bar in Brisbane's central business district, the Courier Mail reported. The venue had been rented out for the video shoot.
Bliss N Eso confirmed the death on the group's Facebook page, saying that the band members were not on the set when Ofner was shot.
“The three of us are extremely upset and shaken up by this, and our hearts and prayers go out to the victim’s family and friends, as well as the cast and crew who were involved in the clip today,” the band’s statement read.
Ofner posted video to his Facebook page last August that he indicated was his audition video for Australian Ninja Warrior.
A video that he posted just days before his death showed him performing pull ups and flips on some metal bars near the beach.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that several actors were using multiple firearms while the scene was being filmed. Queensland police officers are investigating whether real ammunition was accidentally used or whether Ofner's injuries were inflicted by blanks.
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Australia’s largest actors’ union, offered its condolences to Ofner’s family, as well as those affected on the music video set.
"This tragedy is a stark reminder that the screen industry is inherently dangerous and of the need for total vigilance about workplace safety at all times on set," a MEAS spokeswoman said, according to ABC.
Monday’s fatal shooting was not the first to occur on a film set. In one of the more infamous cases in the United States, actor Brandon Lee was shot and killed during filming for “The Crow” in March 1993.
In Lee’s case, a blank round was being used to film his character’s death scene. The crew on the set did not realize, however, that a fragment of a bullet had gotten lodged in the revolver’s barrel during the filming of a previous scene.
When a fellow actor fired the gun at Lee, the blank charge, which uses gunpowder, propelled the bullet fragment into Lee’s abdomen. Lee, the only son of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, died in surgery at a North Carolina hospital.